


come back to me, baby, i’ll come back to you

by LightningMcGay



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-12
Updated: 2019-06-12
Packaged: 2020-05-02 03:48:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19191289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LightningMcGay/pseuds/LightningMcGay
Summary: shiro and adam are haunted by their demons.





	come back to me, baby, i’ll come back to you

 

 

“come back to me, baby—“

 

“i’ll come back to you.”

 

this was something they always told each other before every mission. it’s a ray of light, a vow, his way home, lyrics from an outdated song, it’s their version of  i love you.

 

he remembers shouting it over planes, grinning, and getting a brilliant smile in return. remembers promising it on the night before, when they were pressed against each other.

 

it lives in his soul, something the world will never take away. 

 

shiro wishes he had a chance to go back and say those words one last time, to see adam before it all went to hell. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

their reunion isn’t dramatic. time doesn’t stop when shiro’s eyes meet adam’s. people don’t part immediately to give way for them.

 

it is, however, ugly and powerful and enough to make both of them collapse on their knees, clinging to each other, when they finally see each other. 

 

it is pure, raw emotion. 

 

“i’m never letting you go again.” adam promises, whispering against his skin so lightly that only shiro hears it.

 

“keep me here forever.” 

 

he’s waited years for this. 

 

he’s home.

 

oh god, he’s finally home, he’s with adam, and he’s never going away again.

 

he rests his forehead on adam’s, hands on his shoulders, pulling him closer and closer, til he’s all there is, all that exists, and shiro breathes.

 

it isn’t perfect, with the threat of another war looming on their heads, and hundreds of people watching, but it’s all that shiro has yearned for, through years of imprisonment, wars, and death. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“did you think of me?” 

 

shiro glances at him, an eyebrow raised. 

 

“when you were.. there. a prisoner. did you think of me?”

 

he turns to face adam slowly, trying to put this off as much as he can, not willing to meet his eyes. 

 

he already knows they aren’t accusatory, not pitying, just desperate for an answer, something he’s not ready to give. 

 

“no.” he admits softly, not knowing a way to put it that doesn’t break adam’s heart.

 

the  oh  that comes next is expected, it’s full of despair, it’s anxious, and shiro doesn’t have to look at adam’s face to know how miserable he is. 

 

“i thought of keith and matt. of losing monopoly and piloting for the first time,” he looks at adam now, “i couldn’t bring myself to think of you, not there. i couldn’t do that to you. you were the last good thing i wanted to hold on to.”

 

adam doesn’t say anything. he bites his lip, nods silently, gaze fixed on the ground. he doesn’t understand, shiro thinks bitterly, but i will make him.

 

“i dreamed of you though,” he starts, “every night. when i was in voltron, i thought of you. how insufferable you were, how we used to sneak out of the garrison, how you were always trying to get ahead of me, how we got arrested, how i fell in love with you because you were just as stubborn headed as me.

 

you were my safe haven, adam. when it got too much for me, in the astral plane, you kept me sane. knowing that you were at the end of the road kept me alive.” 

 

adam snorts, wiping his eyes, “kept you alive?”

 

shiro groans, “keith told you that?”

 

there’s a beat of silence, both thinking of the same thing, before adam starts giggling and breaks shiro’s facade and soon they both are laughing, red faced and happy, unable to stop.

 

shiro wants to stay in that moment forever. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

he knew it was going to happen eventually, that adam would break, all the distress and sorrow that seemed to be buried deep in his bones would come to surface.

 

“i fought everyone for you, takashi. i argued and i screamed. hell, i stole a space shuttle.” adam says, voice laced with distraught.

 

“n-nothing seemed to work. you were nowhere. i searched for so long, i never gave up, not on you, i never gave up,” he cries out and shiro holds him in his arms, afraid that adam will fall apart if he lets go just a little. 

 

“i, i tried to look after keith, keep him safe and happy, to do good by him, by you. i wanted you to know that i was on the way, to keep holding on, wherever you were.”

 

“this is so fucking stupid, you know? you went through so much and i wasn’t there. you were alone and helpless and i should have been there.”

 

no, no, he can’t even imagine adam there. adam should be far away from the galra, should be safe on earth, should be right here in shiro’s arms where nobody can hurt him, where nobody can turn him into a lab rat or take his identity, his sense of belonging away.

 

he holds him tighter, wipes his tears with his thumbs, and lets him cry. 

 

shiro needs this just as much as adam. 

 

“i’m proud of you,” he murmurs, kissing his cheek. “you did all you could, and it was enough, adam.” he presses a kiss on his forehead. “you’re brilliant.” a kiss on his nose. 

 

“stay,” adam pleads. “stay with me forever.”

 

shiro repeats it, forever, forever, forever. he wants to take adam and blend into the night before the sun rises. nobody would know where they go, they’d be free and together always, and that’s all that matters to him.

 

selfish, yes, it may be, but after all this, fuck the world, fuck honour, if he wants to disappear with his boyfriend and never show his face again, shiro  sure will. 

 

“you were dead, takashi.” 

 

his voice is rough and cutting and breaks in the middle, shiro’s heart in a vice grip, and he wants to sink in to the ground.

 

he doesn’t know what to do. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the nightmares had been worst at the start. in the castle, keith would come running, spend the night there, holding shiro the same way shiro had held him when he was young. 

 

if any of the other paladins ever noticed, they didn’t bring the topic up.

 

he was back in the arena, still the champion, ruthless, uncontrollable, strong. they hurt him, scarred him, took his arm.

 

and he hurt them back. he didn’t stop til they were broken and hopeless, and when he stood above them to gloat, that he won, to bask in his victory, another trophy, they were no longer an alien.

 

they were keith, empty spaces where his eyes were supposed to be.

 

they were lance, legs broken, blood coming out of his mouth.

 

they were pidge, a hole where her brain was supposed to be.

 

they were hunk, bleeding from multiple stab wounds.

 

they were allura and coran and matt, dead and gone, all by his hand.

 

but most often, they were adam, on his last breathe, condemning him, words venomous and accusatory, and shiro had to watch every time, petrified. 

 

traitor. murderer. freak. 

 

haggar’s voice followed him everywhere, whispering sweet promises of how she was coming back for him, for her champion. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

he wakes up thrashing and freezes as soon as he realizes where he is.

 

adam looks at him; concerned, eyes bleary from sleepiness. 

 

“did i hurt you?” shiro demands, his human arm grabbing adam’s shoulder, shaking him roughly.

 

he eyes adam, but there’s nothing. no bruise but he persists, “adam, did i hurt you?”

 

he moves towards shiro’s arm, his metal arm, and he flinches instinctively, tucking his arm behind him.

 

adam continues, moving closer to it. he places his hand gently, putting it near his heart.

 

shiro inhales sharply, trembling.

 

“i’m okay.” adam confirms. “you didn’t hurt me. i’m okay and so are you.”

 

he wants to believe it, he does, but his arm is close, it’s so close, and when he opens his eyes, adam is dead, mouth opened in a scream, eyes vacant. 

 

he staggers back, horrified, falling off the bed and onto the floor, and scrambles til he’s pressed against the wall when adam moves.

 

“don’t come near, please, don’t, go away, away, please, adam, not you, not you, please.” 

 

he’s begging, nails pressing so hard into his hand that he’s sure he’s scratched it, little drops of blood appearing.

 

haggar’s voice fills the room and she’s everywhere. he closes his eyes, hugs his knees, trying to shut her out, but she simply laughs at him, scolding him for being so childish to think he can escape her.

 

he’s back in his cell, back in the lab, back in the living hell.

 

“—kashi? takashi?”

 

adam? no, no, no.

 

adam isn’t supposed to be here.

 

he feels arms closing in and he cries, because they’re here again and they’ll break him and take away adam and all that is good and—

 

he knows these arms. knows the hands moving on his body.

 

they aren’t galran. they aren’t meant to be defiling and humiliating, they’re human and familiar and comforting.

 

he cracks open an eye, terrified of the sight that awaits him.

 

but it’s adam. it’s adam without his glasses, messy bed hair, worried eyes, adam who makes the best pancakes, adam, his boyfriend, and he lets go of him as soon as he sees that shiro is back.

 

shiro misses them instantly. their warmth, their safety, he wants them back. 

 

“don’t let them take me away.” he mumbles, “please, adam, i can’t handle that again.”

 

“i don’t want to be her toy, i don’t want to be used, i don’t want to be taken apart and broken, please.”

 

adam opens his arms and shiro doesn’t hesitate, tackling him in a hug, resting his head on adam’s chest.

 

“you’re safe here, takashi. you’re home. she can’t hurt you. you came back to me, to us.”

 

they stay there on the floor. shiro doesn’t know about the time, it could have been minutes or hours, and he wouldn’t care. 

 

he doesn’t know anything except adam’s fingers stroking his hair, his hand pulling shiro in close,  and shiro clinging to him just as tightly, leaving no space between them.

 

“i’m not the same man you fell in love with.” his voice is barely a whisper, low and soft.

 

but adam hears him, shiro knows, because his chin wobbles slightly above him. 

 

“we’ve both changed, takashi.” 

 

he grasps shiro’s face gently and leans down so they’re eye level.

 

“i’ll fall in love with you again and again.” he swears, “i’ll fall and choose to stay in love.”

 

“i’ve waited years for you, takashi shirogane. what is an eternity more to me? i’ll fall and fall and meet you half way.”

 

he moves his hands so they’re cupping shiro’s face, slightly squishing his face, and adam falls in love right there and then. 

 

“we can’t go back to who we were. but we can create something new. we can move on and face our demons, we can start over.”

 

shiro’s hands tremble when he moves adam’s hair away from his face. he doesn’t know why he’s shaking.

 

“come back to me, baby—“

 

“i’ll come back to you.”

 

shiro finishes, a smile flashing across his face slowly. 

 

adam’s eyes shine. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

shiro lost part of himself in space and adam lost it trying to find him. 

 

it doesn't matter to him, that they’ll never be the same.

 

change is inevitable.

 

what does matter to him, is that he came back to adam. he travelled through space and time, and found his way back home.

 

when shiro thinks of the future, it’s with a new hope and a ring around his finger. 

 

 


End file.
